Black soldier fly (BSF) larva is an attractive animal feed replacer due to its noticeable nutritional content. However, the conventional rearing method often resulted in BSF with undesirably high heavy metal residues that are harmful to animals. In this work, putrefied Sesbania grandiflora (S. Grandiflora) leaves were employed as feed to rear BSF larvae. The resultant BSF prepupae were found to contain 43.5% protein and 16.7% fat, reflecting a comparable protein content and a 2-fold reduction in crude fat than those reared using conventional kitchen waste. Moreover, high quantities of arginine (25.4 g/kg dry matter basis (DM)), carnitine (32.9 g/kg DM), and short-chain fatty acids, including lauric (40.00%), palmitic (19.20%), and oleic (12.10%) acids, have also been noticed in the BSF prepupae. Furthermore, the BSF larvae have been recorded with 0.185 mg/kg chromium, 0.380 mg/kg selenium, and mercury below the detection limit, which is far lower than those reared using conventional kitchen and agricultural wastes (?1.7 mg/kg chromium, 1.2 mg/kg selenium, and 0.2 mg/kg mercury). Overall, the study shows that the nutritional quality of BSF prepupae is extensively improved when using S. Grandiflora as their feed. The resultant BSF prepupae may serve as an alternative feed for animal rearing.This research investigates the interaction effect between corruption and foreign direct investment (FDI) on environmental pollution by applying the spatial econometric model to the panel data of China's 29 provinces from 1994 to 2015 and analyzes the differences between China's eastern, central and western regions. Results show that (a) FDI inflow deteriorates the environmental quality, validating the pollution haven hypothesis (PHH); (b) by weakening the environmental standards, corruption enables the inflow of low-quality FDI, weakens the spillover effect of FDI and indirectly causes further environmental pollution; (c) the interaction effect between corruption and FDI on environmental pollution is less significant in the eastern region than in the central and western regions.The decrease in electrical properties caused by the toughening of polypropylene (PP) is a difficult problem for the modification of PP used for cable insulation. In this research, an isotactic PP, a cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) and two impact PP copolymers (IPCs) with an ethylene-propylene rubber phase content of 15 and 30% were prepared to assess the possibility of IPCs to be used as cable insulating material. The tensile properties and breakdown strength were evaluated, meanwhile, the rubber phase content dependence of the crystalline structure, morphology and trap distribution were also investigated. Results show that IPCs with a 15% rubber phase content (IPC15) can achieve the simultaneous improvement of elongation at break and breakdown strength compared with isotactic PP, which can be attributed to the special crystalline structure. According to the results of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and FTIR, it is proposed that the lamella thickness of IPC15 is maximal and some ethylene segments exist in PP crystals of IPC15 as crystalline structure defects, which is responsible for this enhanced breakdown strength. The morphology results reveal that rubber microspheres are found to coexist with spherulites, which can promote the relative sliding among lamellas under external force and further results in the increase in the elongation at break.This report summarizes the outcome of a workshop held in Mysuru, India in January 2020 addressing the adverse health effects of exposure to biomass smoke (BMS). The aim of the workshop was to identify uncertainties and gaps in knowledge and possible methods to address them in the Mysuru study on Determinants of Health in Rural Adults (MUDHRA) cohort. Specific aims were to discuss the possibility to improve and introduce new screening methods for exposure and effect, logistic limitations and other potential obstacles, and plausible strategies to overcome these in future studies. Field visits were included in the workshop prior to discussing these issues. The workshop concluded that multi-disciplinary approaches to perform (a) indoor and personalized exposure assessment; (b) clinical and epidemiological field studies among children, adolescents, and adults; (c) controlled exposure experiments using physiologically relevant in vitro and in vivo models to understand molecular patho-mechanisms are warranted to dissect BMS-induced adverse health effects. It was perceived that assessment of dietary exposure (like phytochemical index) may serve as an important indicator for understanding potential protective mechanisms. Well trained field teams and close collaboration with the participating hospital were identified as the key requirements to successfully carry out the study objectives.Surgical simulators and injury-prediction human models require a combination of representative tissue geometry and accurate tissue material properties to predict realistic tool-tissue interaction forces and injury mechanisms, respectively. While biological tissues have been individually characterized, the transition regions between tissues have received limited research attention, potentially resulting in inaccuracies within simulations. In this work, an approach to characterize the transition regions in transversely isotropic (TI) soft tissues using functionally graded material (FGM) modeling is presented. The effect of nonlinearities and multi-regime nature of the TI model on the functional grading process is discussed. The proposed approach has been implemented to characterize the transition regions in the leaflet (LL), chordae tendinae (CT) and the papillary muscle (PM) of porcine tricuspid valve (TV) and mitral valve (MV). https://www.selleckchem.com/products/mpp-dihydrochloride.html The FGM model is informed using high resolution morphological measurements of the collagen fiber orientation and tissue composition in the transition regions, and deformation characteristics predicted by the FGM model are numerically validated to experimental data using X-ray diffraction imaging. The results indicate feasibility of using the FGM approach in modeling soft-tissue transitions and has implications in improving physical representation of tissue deformation throughout the body using a scalable version of the proposed approach.